Onwards and upwards
Wow. We’re 48 hours into the campaign, and I still can’t quite believe what has taken place. We wanted to get off to a good start, of course, but seeing the amount of buzz and activity around the internet is brilliant.
£15,000. Over 300 funders. Tweets being retweeted to tens of thousands of people. Articles on The Guardian website, MCV, betanews and elsewhere. Ben and Andrew giving interviews and taking part in podcasts. Nick Veitch, the creator of Linux Format, backing us with a lifetime subscription.
It’s incredible, but we still have a long way to go. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but spreading the word is vital here. We don’t have a big advertising budget, so we’re relying on the community to let everyone know – and when we succeed, we’ll be giving back to this awesome community. Thank you!
Related Posts
About The Author
Ben Everard
Ben Everard is the co-author of Learning Python with the Raspberry Pi and hacks hardware projects held together with a big dollop of Linux and Free Software glue. He's @ben_everard on Twitter.
Really looking forward to the publication! Four page spread about Elite in the works Mike? 😉
Are you serious? It'd have to be 16 pages, and then another 16 about Frontier 🙂
I contacted all my favorite podcasts (and some that suck) on Tue and got replies back that plugs or stories were already in the works. So cool! You guys have an amazing amount of supporters. I just hope most of them have deeper pockets than I do. I'll be at least a founder before times up though! Really pulling for you.
I wrote a blog post about it. I'm not on any (other) social media, so I'm going to post to the mailing lists where I'm a member, as well as text my friends about it.
I'm trying to donate but keep getting told that Indigogo's too busy to accept payment and to try again later. This is probably a good thing (!) but I'm starting to get paranoid here – anyone else having similar problems? I suppose I should just persevere……..
Is anyone else having these issues?
If you keep having problems, let me know and I'll kick Indigogo's tech support into action.
kicking people already Ben? tutut 😉
Cheers Ben – I'm touch with them now thanks, but it may be that I have to hand deliver my contribution to you so just in case would you ask Andrew if he can make arrangements for my safe passage through his sharks please??!!!
I had to sell the sharks to fund Linux Voice. The volcano is vulnerable!
… and finally I've managed to make my contibution! After one week of effort and lots of frustration I'm finally there – I seem to be the one person in a thousand that suffers issues with PayPal! Never mind, they're still pretty good odds for the majority. At least I don't have to parachute into the volcano to deliver it by hand any more. Thanks to Dave S for his help.
Sorry to hear about the sharks Andrew – maybe we can have more crowd funding to replace them (or would piranhas be more cost-effective in this harsh economic climate?).
Good luck lads – you deserve maximum success with this, I've got my fingers crossed.
I really hope this doesn't "do an Ubuntu Phone" and actually gets funded – the prospect of "open source publishing" is pretty darned interesting. So one years subscription on order for me please!
In the meantime I've tried to "spread the good news" and posted a small article on the Linux Expert group of LinkedIn publicising the project. Figure you've got TwitBook and G+ all sewn up already, so a little more coverage won't hurt.
Fingers crossed. 😀
I also had visions of the Ubuntu Phone, but so far it's looking pretty good! Day three donations seem a little bit better than day two donations from what I can tell, which I don't think can be said about the Ubuntu Phone.
Better yet, I think the problem with the Ubuntu Phone was the huge amount of money they were asking for. It was pretty clear that once things started to stangate, it would never get funded. Here, they're already 1/5th of the way there and the prospcet of getting another 75,000 pounds doesn't seem unreasonable.
I think you have all done a very good job. This really should come as no surprise. I could say all kinds of waffling rubbish, but I won't take up important time that could be far better spent on stuff.
Honestly, you guys have been as good company as any linux fan could wish for, and long may your podcasts continue.
Now…. about the print thing…. Ummm, I'm not /entirely/ convinced it's a great idea. I mean, yeah, the bible and the printing machine and all that, but actually didn't one of them wind up being a rather bad idea?
I guess I'm talking about the concept of getting a "disc" with the publication ….
You do still have to nut out the numbers (dollars) that a conscription will influence the ultimate price. Different pubs have dealt with that idea: Either you're here for the long haul or you get hauled out.
IE! I am not sure you'd gain much from establishing a consistent promise of a "disc" plus magazine, as against the old trend of adding a "disc" to the magazine as an "extra" incentive.
I recognise that disc copying is fairly cheap, and that's what older magazine standards based themselves on. Newest games, distros etc, but that been superceded by the accessibility of internet, and a mere URL can offer access to relevent stuff.
On the other hand, I do /like/ the concept of having access to a distro on a disc that I can return to later.
Look it will be up to you ultimately, and my voice is only one.
Personally, I like the idea of having something physical in my hand, to read or re-read. And the accompaniment of some data on a phisical disc is a real benefit. Especially if the net is "down".
But yeah, it's a quandary, a difficulty and particularly if it means the difference between actually having something someone can touch and feel and something that winds up not being at all, I'd be on the side of saying that I'd rather there be a mag without a disc than there being no mag at all.
Given that, my subscription will be for the first few copies, as I am still not working and unlikely to find occupancy in the near future. Although I might write the occasional piece….
a crusty bread?
Anyway, sincerely wish you all the best in your new endeavour.
MK
Your over £20,000 now 🙂 just thought I'd give it a nudge. Looking forward to the Mag. Good Luck Boys!
Yay! Thanks a lot 🙂